Christ has come and Christ will come again - Day 6
Luke 2:1-7
2 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
Luke is making a very important point in the way he tells this story.
Emperor Augustus was the most powerful man in the Roman Empire, an empire that covered Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East into Iran. And he ordered a census of his empire – which had the dual purpose of determining just how many people were in his empire (an ego boost for Augustus), and to tax the people of the empire so that the emperor would have enough money to be the great person he saw himself to be. Augustus appears to have all the power.
Because of Augustus’ power and his orders, the little family of Joseph and Mary are forced to travel to Bethlehem which is Joseph’s hometown. The empire does not care that Mary is in the last days of her pregnancy. The empire does not care how awkward this is for them. Because the empire does not care about the problems of the common labourer.
But at the end of vs. 4 there is a shift. Joseph, the common labourer, is a descendant of David. Is descended from kings. And even though there is no room in the inn, even though they are in the stable section of the inn, even though they have no status. The story is not about Augustus – the story is about this baby lying in a manger.
The only reason we in 2021 care about Augustus is because God used him to get the little family to Bethlehem – where the real king, the one who really matters, the one who is one who we still talk about – was born.
The story flips in Luke’s telling – Jesus has come and has disrupted the world.
PRAYER:
God of grace, you turned the calculating of Emperor Augustus to bring about your plans and purposes. Turn the calculating of the political leaders of today, turn our calculating, to bring about your purposes. So that the glory and praise would go to you alone. In Jesus’ name. Amen.